But, it can only run for an hour or so before the oxide buildup (dross)
makes it almost impossible to use. And, because it is so small, it is not
feasible to skim the surface to remove the oxide film. I've been throwing
the solder away, but it is getting a little expensive and I've gone through
a bunch of solder already. SO, I was looking for an alternative, which would
be a high temperature flux that wouldn't boil away when placed in a solder
pot or a high temperature oil that had a smoke point well above the
temperature of the solder.

I found a product by Kester (1544-HT) that is rated for high temperature in
solder pots, (solder paste) but it sells by the gallon only.

I also found a company ( http://www.qualitek.com/2020_2100.PDF ) that makes
a special oil that prevents the molten solder from reacting with oxygen by
forming an oil film on top of the solder. But, again, the stuff is only
available by the gallon.

Are there any industrial users out there that buy this stuff by the gallon
or larger that can sell me a 10 or 12 ounces of qualitek 2020 or 2100 high
temperature oil, or equivalent?

Artie Jones wrote:
> Are there any industrial users out there that buy this stuff by the
> gallon or larger that can sell me a 10 or 12 ounces of qualitek 2020
> or 2100 high temperature oil, or equivalent?

I would ask local contract manufacturers that have wave solder machines.

Artie Jones wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> I recently built a micro solder pot, and it works great.

I'm curious, what are you using it for? We considered getting a solder pot
for the lab, to use for pretinning and such, but it sounds really dangerous.
We can barely get insurance as it is (nobody understands what it is we do),
and I'm worried about our (creative, but accident-prone) guys spilling
molten solder on themselves. :)

> I'm curious, what are you using it for? We considered getting a solder pot
> for the lab, to use for pretinning and such, but it sounds really
> dangerous.
> We can barely get insurance as it is (nobody understands what it is we
> do),
> and I'm worried about our (creative, but accident-prone) guys spilling
> molten solder on themselves. :)
>
> Vitaliy

Vitaliy, I wondered if other people had that problem with insurance.
They do not have a clue about what I do, but then there is not that
much electronic design and manufacturing here in Louisianan.

We use a solder pot for tinning wires. I have an automatic wire cutter
and stripper that cuts to length and strips the ends and then we tin them.

Derward Myrick wrote:
>> I'm curious, what are you using it for? We considered getting a solder
>> pot
>> for the lab, to use for pretinning and such, but it sounds really
>> dangerous.
>> We can barely get insurance as it is (nobody understands what it is we
>> do),
>> and I'm worried about our (creative, but accident-prone) guys spilling
>> molten solder on themselves. :)
>>
>> Vitaliy
>
> Vitaliy, I wondered if other people had that problem with insurance.
> They do not have a clue about what I do, but then there is not that
> much electronic design and manufacturing here in Louisianan.
>
> We use a solder pot for tinning wires. I have an automatic wire cutter
> and stripper that cuts to length and strips the ends and then we tin them.

What type of cutter is it (make/model)? We have an application where we need
to cut equal length of wire, and doing it manually is a chore.

Vitaliy wrote:
> Artie Jones wrote:
>
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>> I recently built a micro solder pot, and it works great.
>>
>
> I'm curious, what are you using it for? We considered getting a solder pot
> for the lab, to use for pretinning and such, but it sounds really dangerous.
> We can barely get insurance as it is (nobody understands what it is we do),
> and I'm worried about our (creative, but accident-prone) guys spilling
> molten solder on themselves. :)
>
> Vitaliy
>
>
If your worried about that type thing then bolt it to the desk.

It is the MSC- 100. I bought it seven years ago and
had one problem in Jan. of this year. I sent the circuit board
back to them and I received it back, repaired, in a week.
The total cost for repair was $75.00. I have been very pleased with it.

Jake Anderson wrote:
>>> Hi everyone,
>>>
>>> I recently built a micro solder pot, and it works great.
>>>
>>
>> I'm curious, what are you using it for? We considered getting a solder
>> pot
>> for the lab, to use for pretinning and such, but it sounds really
>> dangerous.
>> We can barely get insurance as it is (nobody understands what it is we
>> do),
>> and I'm worried about our (creative, but accident-prone) guys spilling
>> molten solder on themselves. :)
>>
> If your worried about that type thing then bolt it to the desk.

Derward Myrick wrote:
>> What type of cutter is it (make/model)? We have an application where we
>> need
>> to cut equal length of wire, and doing it manually is a chore.
>>
>> Vitaliy
>
>
> Go to this site http://www.wirestrippers.com/.
>
> It is the MSC- 100.

Vitaliy wrote:
> Derward Myrick wrote:
>>> What type of cutter is it (make/model)? We have an application where we
>>> need
>>> to cut equal length of wire, and doing it manually is a chore.
>>>
>>> Vitaliy
>>
>> Go to this site http://www.wirestrippers.com/.
>>
>> It is the MSC- 100.
>
> [Vitaliy, after picking up his jaw off the floor]
>
> Thanks, I think we'll keep stripping the wire by hand for now.
>
> :-)
>
> Vitaliy

I presume you are reacting to the price of the MSC-100... but if you
have much volume, it will allow one person to strip wire almost as fast
as 10 people using hand tools. It doesn't cost you money; it saves you
money. It isn't for someone who has 5 pieces of wire to strip; it's for
someone who has 5000 pieces of wire to strip.

> Vitaliy wrote:
>> Derward Myrick wrote:
>>>> What type of cutter is it (make/model)? We have an application
>>>> where we need
>>>> to cut equal length of wire, and doing it manually is a chore.
>>>>
>>>> Vitaliy
>>>>
>>> Go to this site http://www.wirestrippers.com/.
>>>
>>> It is the MSC- 100.
>>>
>> [Vitaliy, after picking up his jaw off the floor]
>>
>> Thanks, I think we'll keep stripping the wire by hand for now.
>>
>> :-)
>>
>> Vitaliy
>>
> I presume you are reacting to the price of the MSC-100... but if you have
> much volume, it will allow one person to strip wire almost as fast as 10
> people using hand tools. It doesn't cost you money; it saves you money.
> It isn't for someone who has 5 pieces of wire to strip; it's for someone
> who has 5000 pieces of wire to strip.

Exactly. One of my best friends owns and runs a contract manufacturing
company. They have two (2!) Eubanks Model 4900 cutter strippers. He told me
the first one (purchased many years ago) paid for itself in 6 months. They
bought a 2nd one a couple years later.

Another consideration is that you'll get extremely consistent length cuts
and strips on every wire. This is especially important with wires that are
going to be crimp terminated as the strip length is generally quite
critical for getting a good crimp joint.

I'm not sure about the pricing but I believe the Eubanks 4900 is in the
same price range as the machine Derward recommended. Another thing about
Eubanks -- they have been around forever in the business (at least since
before 1980 when I got into electronics). Repair and maintenance parts are
readily available for even the oldest models.

>>>> What type of cutter is it (make/model)? We have an application where we
>>>> need
>>>> to cut equal length of wire, and doing it manually is a chore.
>>>>
>>>> Vitaliy
>>>
>>> Go to this site http://www.wirestrippers.com/.
>>>
>>> It is the MSC- 100.
>>
>> [Vitaliy, after picking up his jaw off the floor]
>>
>> Thanks, I think we'll keep stripping the wire by hand for now.
>>
>> :-)
>>
>> Vitaliy
>
> I presume you are reacting to the price of the MSC-100... but if you
> have much volume, it will allow one person to strip wire almost as fast
> as 10 people using hand tools. It doesn't cost you money; it saves you
> money. It isn't for someone who has 5 pieces of wire to strip; it's for
> someone who has 5000 pieces of wire to strip.

Bolt the pot down and surround it with a guard and a flip up cover
and a trained attack dog
MA{Quote hidden}

>
> On Feb 13, 2009, at 7:26 PM, Vitaliy wrote:
>
> Artie Jones wrote:
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>> I recently built a micro solder pot, and it works great.
>
> I'm curious, what are you using it for? We considered getting a
> solder pot
> for the lab, to use for pretinning and such, but it sounds really
> dangerous.
> We can barely get insurance as it is (nobody understands what it is
> we do),
> and I'm worried about our (creative, but accident-prone) guys spilling
> molten solder on themselves. :)
>
> Vitaliy
>

WFT Electronics
Denver, CO 720 222 1309
" dent the UNIVERSE "

All ideas, text, drawings and audio , that are originated by WFT
Electronics ( and it's principals ), that are included with this
signature text are to be deemed to be released to the public domain as
of the date of this communication .

>>> What type of cutter is it
>>
>> Go to this site http://www.wirestrippers.com/.
>> It is the MSC- 100.
>
> [Vitaliy, after picking up his jaw off the floor]
> Thanks, I think we'll keep stripping the wire by hand for now.

> Derward Myrick wrote:
> >> What type of cutter is it (make/model)? We have an application where we
> >> need
> >> to cut equal length of wire, and doing it manually is a chore.
> >>
> >> Vitaliy
> >
> >
> > Go to this site http://www.wirestrippers.com/.
> >
> > It is the MSC- 100.
>
> [Vitaliy, after picking up his jaw off the floor]
>
> Thanks, I think we'll keep stripping the wire by hand for now.
>
> :-)

That's not too bad a price for a specialised machine.

They're not all that hard to make if you've dabbled in automation or CNC.
I've built two, one was simple version just wires to length, it used a
stepper motor to both feed & measure the wire, and simple shears to cut it.

The other one performed like the one mentioned. It had three sets of
knives, the one in the middle cut the wire, the two outer ones cut thru the
insulation. I suspect the MSC-100 works like that, which is why it leaves
the insulation on the ends of the wire. Not a bad thing, you can twist the
wire ends as you take the insulation off.

Control was an old DOS PC with a few dozen lines of Basic. Type in quantity
& length, and away it went.

If you do get a solder pot, don't get tempted to speed up the process by
dipping in a handful of wires, that much flux boiling off tends to make it
spit solder at you.

What you need is a little robot arm to catch the wires off the cutter to dip
them for you.

> Another consideration is that you'll get extremely consistent length cuts
> and strips on every wire. This is especially important with wires that are
> going to be crimp terminated as the strip length is generally quite
> critical for getting a good crimp joint.

> Matt Pobursky
> Maximum Performance Systems

Matt, that is a good point. On the big job I had there were over 150,000
wires to strip.
Out of the 150,000 there were about 3/4 of them that used crimp connectors.
I also bought a pnuematic crimper and this is a life saver also.

>
>>>
>>>
>>> Go to this site http://www.wirestrippers.com/.
>>>
>
> That's not too bad a price for a specialised machine.
>
> They're not all that hard to make if you've dabbled in automation or
> CNC.
> I've built two, one was simple version just wires to length, it used a
> stepper motor to both feed & measure the wire, and simple shears to
> cut it.
>
> The other one performed like the one mentioned. It had three sets of
> knives, the one in the middle cut the wire, the two outer ones cut
> thru the
> insulation. I suspect the MSC-100 works like that, which is why it
> leaves
> the insulation on the ends of the wire. Not a bad thing, you can
> twist the
> wire ends as you take the insulation off.
>
> Control was an old DOS PC with a few dozen lines of Basic. Type in
> quantity
> & length, and away it went.
>
> If you do get a solder pot, don't get tempted to speed up the
> process by
> dipping in a handful of wires, that much flux boiling off tends to
> make it
> spit solder at you.
>
> What you need is a little robot arm to catch the wires off the
> cutter to dip
> them for you.
>
> Tony
>

WFT Electronics
Denver, CO 720 222 1309
" dent the UNIVERSE "

All ideas, text, drawings and audio , that are originated by WFT
Electronics ( and it's principals ), that are included with this
signature text are to be deemed to be released to the public domain as
of the date of this communication .

No pictures (was about 10 years ago) but it's easy to visualise. Much
simpler than that one linked to before, I think that was someone's art
project.

Start with the spool of wire hanging on a bit of pipe, the wire gets fed
into a short piece of guide tube. At the end is the stepper with a small
metal wheel mounted on the shaft, with a rubber pinch roller pressing up
against it. If tension is a problem use two pinch rollers, or multiples.
After that is another short guide tube, and right at the end are the shears.
These were made from an old fax paper guillotine. The lower is fixed, the
upper pushed down by a cam driven by an ordinary motor. A solenoid or
something like a car door lock would work too.

The stepper is driven from the parallel port. If you use a unipolar
(6-wire) stepper then control is easier, you can basically connect it
straight to the port (well, some mosfets in the middle would be nice).
Bipolar (4-wire) need a h-bridge driver. To rotate the stepper you just
turn each coil on in sequence, so "1000", "0100", "0010" "0001" out the
port, and repeat. Add a microswitch to detect wire, and connect that to the
'paper out' pin. Trigger the cutter when needed.

Calibrating is just figuring out how much wire comes out for each step. Run
the stepper for ~20,000 steps, measure and divide. You might find each step
advances 0.19324mm of wire, so 50mm is 258 steps. The downside is your wire
will always be a multiple of that length, but who cares? 0.19324mm out?
Bah. (actually, 0.14408mm short, as if you'd notice.) A smaller wheel on
the stepper increases resolution.

The second one was similar but had extra blades to nick the insulation.
Looking at the wirestrippers site the idea of rotating the blade around the
wire (like coax strippers) would work well, but harder to build.

They were only used on one type of wire so adjustability wasn't a big deal.
Hell, just make another one.

They weren't overly fast, but they were fast enough. Maybe a 15cm wire
every 5-10 seconds? That over 300 an hour, who need interns anyway.

> Do you have a picture ?
> MA
> >
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Go to this site http://www.wirestrippers.com/.
> >>>
> >
> > That's not too bad a price for a specialised machine.
> >
> > They're not all that hard to make if you've dabbled in automation or
> > CNC.
> > I've built two, one was simple version just wires to length, it used a
> > stepper motor to both feed & measure the wire, and simple shears to
> > cut it.
> >
> > The other one performed like the one mentioned. It had three sets of
> > knives, the one in the middle cut the wire, the two outer ones cut
> > thru the
> > insulation. I suspect the MSC-100 works like that, which is why it
> > leaves
> > the insulation on the ends of the wire. Not a bad thing, you can
> > twist the
> > wire ends as you take the insulation off.
> >
> > Control was an old DOS PC with a few dozen lines of Basic. Type in
> > quantity
> > & length, and away it went.

2009/2/15 Vitaliy <spamEraseME.....maksimov.org>:
> Tony Smith
>> No pictures (was about 10 years ago) but it's easy to visualise. Much
>> simpler than that one linked to before, I think that was someone's art
>> project.
>> [...]
>
> Awesome. :) However, it is probably too late for us to do anything like
> this: the project where the wires are needed, is currently being outsourced
> to China. I hope they use automatic cutters there.
>
> Vitaliy
>

> Jake Anderson wrote:
>
>>>> Hi everyone,
>>>>
>>>> I recently built a micro solder pot, and it works great.
>>>>
>>>>
>>> I'm curious, what are you using it for? We considered getting a solder
>>> pot
>>> for the lab, to use for pretinning and such, but it sounds really
>>> dangerous.
>>> We can barely get insurance as it is (nobody understands what it is we
>>> do),
>>> and I'm worried about our (creative, but accident-prone) guys spilling
>>> molten solder on themselves. :)
>>>
>>>
>> If your worried about that type thing then bolt it to the desk.
>>
>
> I don't know... we have interns.
>
> Vitaliy
>
>